The Orange River is the second largest in southern Africa after the Zambezi River and the largest in the Republic of South Africa .
Summary
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- 1 History
- 2 Tour
- 3 tributaries
- 4 Source
History
The river was discovered by Europeans in 1760 and was named the House of Orange of the Netherlands around the years 1777 to 1779 .
Travel
It is born in the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa and runs along the border between this country and Lesotho , about 193 km from the coast of the Indian Ocean . The river, however, heads west, on a 2,200 km route, tracing the southern border of the Province of the Free State . Later it runs along the border between Namibia and South Africa and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in the city of Alexander Bay , halfway between Walvis Bay and Cape Town .
Tributaries
Its most prominent tributary is the Vaal River , which also rises in the Drakensberg range to the east of Johannesburg and forms the border between the Transvaal and the Free State, before joining the Orange southwest of the Kimberley . After joining the Vaal, the Orange traverses the wild and barren lands of the southern Kalahari and Namaqualand region .
During the last 800 km of its course it receives many intermittent streams and several wadis. The volume of the flow is greatly reduced due to evaporation. In the rainy season, the Orange turns into a mighty torrent.
